M.J. Simpson looks at the Tommy Westphall Universe. Bullshit or not? Does it genuinely link a vast number of popular small screen shows or is it the most outlandish fan theory in the history of television?

There is a long history of TV series spinning off from other TV series, either during or after the original show’s run. Some spin-offs become bigger than the show they were born from, like Xena: Warrior Princess. Some achieve their own level of cult status, for example The Girl from UNCLE. And some are best left alone and quietly forgotten; I’m looking at you, AfterM*A*S*H.

There is also a history of TV crossovers: fan-pleasing in-jokes whereby characters from one show pop up in another. Think of the Green Hornet and Kato doing the ‘window gag’ in a Batman episode, or the Jeffersons as potential house-buyers in the final episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Any time that two TV series share a character or other fictional element, they are considered – by fans at least – to be in the same ‘fictional universe’. Which may be a literal universe, like the numerous incarnations of Star Trek, or just a fictional version of reality, like the Miami that was home to The Golden Girls and its spin-off The Golden Palace (and its other spin-off, Empty Nest).

But what if there was some way to make bigger connections, hopping from TV show to TV show in a web of spin-offs and crossovers until hundreds of apparently disparate dramas, cop shows, sitcoms and sci-fi adventures were revealed to be all actually set in one giant fictional reality?